Texas State Cemetery

     Founded in 1851 upon the interment of General Edward Burleson, Texas Revolutionary veteran, the Texas State Cemetery lies in downtown Austin. At rest there lay other revolutionary veterans, Civil War veterans, elected officials, and other people of note -- all who made a contribution to Texas culture -- including athletes, such as El Diablo. Writers Walter Prescott Webb (1888 - 1963) and Fred Gipson (1908 - 1973) rest there.

Edward Burleson's grave, and the first internment at the Texas State Cemetery.

Mosley Baker.

The white stones indicating the graves of Texan Confederate veterans.

    The story that our pleasant guide related to us holds that back in the 1930s, in order to raise federal funding to renovate and expand the cemetery, they designated a road as a state highway. As it turns out, if a state highway runs through a cemetery, the grounds qualify for federal funding. I pondered the cleverness of lawyers as I watched a sedan slowly make it way down the cemetery on the shortest state highway in Texas, State Highway Number 165.

Texas State Highway 165 runs through the cemetery.

Notable people rest under the trees.

An eight-hundred year old statue of Saint Andrews, imported from England,
stands at John B. Conally's grave site.

      Artistically, such as a horse's hooves indicating how its rider lost his life (or not), what does a raised hand mean in this statue or Stephen F. Austin? Nothing! The artist, Pompeo Coppini, intended to place the statue along the avenue leading toward the state capitol in Austin. The statue's hand would have pointed toward the capitol; instead, those who commissioned the statue placed the statue at Austin's memorial, and his hand pointing away from the capitol. 

One of many serene places in the cemetery.

D4, 17-35mm.